


Alice

by Medie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Porn Battle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-10
Updated: 2013-02-10
Packaged: 2017-11-28 21:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/678915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That her mother should appear in Storybrooke is no surprise to Grace at all, but Jefferson can't trust it. Not even when Alice reaches them and pulls them both into her arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alice

They see her in the street. Grace, first. He might have known that Grace would be the one to find her. Sharp-eyed and quick-thinking like her mother, it's Grace that spots the flick of a blond pony-tail through the crowd and looks close enough to recognize the face and form attached to it.

She stops, still holding tight to his hand, so quickly that he nearly pulls her off her feet.

Jefferson looks down, worried, always worried, but Grace is just staring in wonder. It's early days, yet, all of them trying to sort through the memories of home and their imagined lives here. It's nothing to walk to the market and see joyous reunions in the middle of the street.

He'd never thought to have the one he has, never dared approach Grace with the shame of having left her, so he can be forgiven for never even imagining he might find Alice here.

And yet she is.

She's returned to him as triumphant as the day they'd bested the Queen of Hearts together. He thinks of that day, now, and the way they'd stumbled free of the hat, flush with their victory and he'd stumbled into her arms. She'd pulled him into the cottage with him, hands small and determined as they'd pushed their way through his stolen uniform. He closes his eyes and sees her lying on the makeshift bed of her own blue gown, his hat upon her head and a gleam of mischief in her eye.

He remembers the warmth of her body around him and how she'd surprised him with her response. She'd held back none of her pleasure and softened none of her cries. She'd pushed him onto his back and taken him within her again, riding him until he'd sobbed with the release.

He likes to believe it was that very night which had given them their Grace.

"Papa, is that--" Grace pauses and, for a second, looks up at him. "Papa, is that my mother?"

Alice sees them and her smile is as blinding and bewitching as his dreams have taunted him. She's here. Alice is _here_.

Jefferson tries to tear his gaze from Alice, but can't. "Yes," he manages to say, his voice hoarse with the effort. "Yes, it is."

He's told Grace nearly every story he can about her mother. She knows every detail of their every adventure, her favorite being the first romp through Wonderland when they'd very nearly toppled the Queen.

That her mother should appear in Storybrooke is no surprise to Grace at all, but Jefferson can't trust it. Not even when Alice reaches them and pulls them both into her arms. She's laughing and crying in the same breath as she kisses Grace's forehead, her cheeks, and hugs her close.

"I knew you'd find us," Grace is saying when Alice pulls back to look at them both. "I _knew_ it."

Jefferson didn't and it shows. "I thought you were gone," he whispers, admitting what he knows his face is already showing her. "I searched. I searched for years. I thought--"

"It doesn't matter," Alice says, cutting through the words. "Whatever magic did it is gone."

"Yes, it does. It _matters_ ," he insists. "If there was even a chance that you might have been rescued!" He's always known that he should have kept looking, searching the realms around them, but Grace had been so tiny and needed so much.

Alice smiles, grabbing him by the coat. "If you even think of apologizing, Jefferson, I will--" She shakes her head and laughs. "Honestly, I don't know what I'll do, but when I think of it you'll be sorry." She kisses him, fitting into his arms as if she's never been anywhere else, and he loses himself in it.

She's found them and he doesn't care what sorcery did it, he's never letting her go again.

He doesn't realize he's speaking, mumbling the words into her mouth, until Alice pulls away. "Jefferson, darling," she says, sweet as iron and soft as steel, "Please shut up and kiss me properly, it has been twenty eight years after all."

It's been an eternity, but Alice gets what Alice wants and he's smiling when he murmurs, "As the lady wishes."


End file.
